quotation marks: quotations within quotations

When you quote a passage that contains a quotation, the quotation marks you use (double or single) will depend on the format of the overall passage.

Run-in format

If you are using run-in format, use double quotation marks around the passage you are quoting and single quotation marks to set off the quotation within the quotation:

In his article “The Grand Illusion,” Robert Fulford makes the following statement: “Television news responds to one of our most profound needs: it reduces the chaos of the day to something approaching order. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz has explained that human beings are ‘symbolizing, conceptualizing, meaning-seeking’ animals who wish to ‘make sense out of their experience, to give it form and order.’”

Block format

If you are using block format, the quoted passage itself is not enclosed in quotation marks, so use double quotation marks to set off the quotation within the quotation.

In his article “The Grand Illusion,” Robert Fulford writes as follows:

Television news responds to one of our most profound needs: it reduces the chaos of the day to something approaching order. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz has explained that human beings are “symbolizing, conceptualizing, meaning-seeking” animals who wish to “make sense out of their experience, to give it form and order.”

Quotation within a quotation within a quotation

In the rare event that a further quotation within a quotation occurs, enclose it in double quotation marks (if the main quotation is in double quotation marks):

• He answered, “I was told, ‘Keep the document marked “Secret” in a safe place.’”